No supervisor, no problem

During the long holiday when I was in the US, I did my block placement (field work) at Christ Our Lord Anglican Church in Lake Ridge, and had a wonderful experience there.  While we’re on block placement, our school supervisors are supposed to come visit and observe us, as they do during the semester.  Clearly, no one was coming to do that for me.  Nor do I think anyone visited the Nigerian student, but I know the Kenyans had a visit.  At least one of them did.  Now I’m wondering about the Tanzanians, but I’m digressing.

Last week I was on chapel duty, and I must say, I’m utterly delighted to have it completed.  I enjoy serving in the chapel, but as the semester goes on, getting the team together and getting people to do what they’re supposed to becomes increasingly aggravating.  So I served on the first Sunday evening Eucharist (I think Canon Moses picked people he thought would be around at the beginning, as students tend to trickle in during the first two weeks), and then three other times, ending on Sunday night.  Yes, that was a lot.  There were like 12 of us on the rota, and I’m not entirely convinced that everyone did something, and I digress again.

Friday night, the team lead, Canon Sunday Mejulu, asked me to lead the service.  That’s fine, even though someone else had been assigned that job.  Saturday night, I asked who was going to pick the hymns.  Apparently that was my job too.  That’s also fine.

So, we had the service, and everyone followed along well, despite my accent.  The worst part of the service was when I had to read the names of the team for the following week (which runs from Monday to Sunday, hence having a longer week than normal.  Can I get points for that?).  African surnames generally don’t stick to me.  So I asked forgiveness in advance, and apparently, didn’t murder anyone’s name too badly.  Or not that anyone’s willing to admit: there are few who will tell me something like that.

On Monday, my friend Henry asked if anyone had come to supervise me during block placement (nope).  Henry is kind of like a father figure for the class; he’s a voice of reason, which we desperately need.  So after learning that I went my entire block placement not being supervised, he told me that I led the service very well, especially since I wasn’t supervised.  I appreciate the feedback, that’s something that isn’t necessarily doled out excessively.  And Henry’s one of the ones to provide constructive feedback when needed, though he couches things in the genteel African way that sometimes takes me a moment to decipher.  But no deciphering needed this time.  : )